Current payment card systems provide little to no control mechanisms for the cardholder or accountholder to use to regulate and monitor usage of the card. While the use of electronic payment systems has grown dramatically over the years since credit cards were introduced, the sophistication of the user experience offered has not.
Presently, card transactions are for the most part authorized or declined by using a set of authorization rules that are primarily under the control of the issuing bank or its delegate, the transaction processor. Other entities may participate in this authorization chain, such as a card alliance (e.g. —Visa, Master Card) for network-branded cards, but only by way of agreements with the issuing bank. The fundamental parameters used to authorize or decline a transaction are effectively opaque (and rigid) to the cardholder or accountholder. While the cardholder or accountholder is expected to pay his or her bill and carefully control spending so as not to go over his or her credit limit, there is no mechanism that the cardholder can use to actively set limits on card usage. It is all a manual effort on the part of the cardholder or accountholder.
Further, a cardholder or accountholder cannot help enforce legitimate usage of his or her card—cardholders/accountholders are completely reliant on the card issuer's and alliance's fraud detection mechanisms, coupled with—again—manual effort on the cardholder's/accountholder's part.